The landscape of manufacturing is ever shifting. Long gone are the days of calm waters in this vertical when every task was handled manually by a human worker. As soon as we invented machines, the manufacturing processes started changing.
Today, we are living in the digital age, and manufacturing is going through digital transformation. However, when the Internet of Things (IoT) arrived, it pushed the industrial revolution into a new direction. Many experts refer to this new revolution as the Industry 4.0, or fourth industrial revolution. Let’s see what it is and what role IoT played in this shift.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things or simply IoT stands for all things interconnected via the internet. In industry, this encompasses all the sensors, machines, robots, IT infrastructure, work terminals, and servers.
Everything connected to the internet can send and receive information.
All of a sudden, these small devices, including sensors, become smart devices. By introducing the “smart” etiquette to every device, IoT has opened new doors for the industrial revolution.
Make Smarter Decisions
The decision-making process functions on the same principles across industries. To make a smart decision, you have to review all the data that is available to you. The problem is that some of this data may be too old to be viable for making decisions in the present, let alone plan for the future.
IoT plays a vital role here because of its nature. Thanks to hundreds of interconnected sensors that send back information in real-time, decision-makers can stay on top of their job. These sensors enable managers to review the data in real-time and make smarter intelligent decisions.
Cut-Down Operational Costs & Environmental Awareness
You are probably aware that the manufacturing industry is responsible for making the most significant carbon footprint worldwide. More and more industries are joining the “environmental awareness” movement. So far, companies had to invest heavily in alternative energy sources to reduce the carbon output and become environmentally friendly. With IoT at their disposal, they can do this more efficiently.
At the same time, IoT can help companies cut-down operational costs. Let us remind you that Google leveraged IoT and artificial intelligence to cut down data center energy bills by a whopping 15%. However, IoT is not only reserved for reducing energy expenses. It can help you assess your overall process costs and identify the areas which can be optimized to cost less without making sacrifices to productivity.
Engineering Design: Data-Driven Problem Solving
Engineering design is one of the most popular problem-solving methods used across verticals. So far, engineers had to spend so much time going through reports and facilities to identify potential problems, bottlenecks, and risks. On top of that, they had to spend the same amount of time, if not more, assessing the possible solutions.
IoT delivers a new perspective to engineers involved in engineering design. Thanks to information streamed in real-time, they can identify the problems, bottlenecks, and potential risks much faster. This factor alone has the power to invite all the major players across industries to implement IoT and instantly benefit from it.
Improve Processes On The Go
One of the industry's biggest problems is having to stop production to improve the process. While the improvements are necessary to improve the quality of the product and boost productivity, downtime is a costly thing to afford.
IoT plays a vital role here as it enables companies to identify processes that can benefit from the improvements and implement improvements on a rolling basis. IoT streamlines production management and helps companies increase productivity without stopping production in order to implement changes.
Improved Inventory Management
Inventory management is a field that went through many transformations. This is simply because efficient inventory management reflects both production processes and supply chain management. The role of IoT here is huge. RFID and IoT paired together can deliver powerful benefits to companies around the world.
The synergy of RFID and IoT enables automated asset tracking. Every individual item can be tracked in real-time. ERP systems can use this information and empower inventory managers to make timely decisions, reduce workload, and the number of working hours.
Additional Layer of Security
Manufacturers around the globe are facing serious online threats. These threats range from benign to serious cyber-attacks. With more and more IT systems in-house, every manufacturing facility becomes more exposed to these threats. This threat can be efficiently addressed with the implementation of IoT and the use of industry-grade IT security solutions.
How can IoT help? Thanks to interconnected devices, organizations can continue to monitor every bit of data that comes in and goes outside the system. IoT delivers an additional layer of security to both data stored on-premises and data stored on the cloud.
Better Safety Standards for Workers
While we are talking about security, your data is not the only asset you should worry about. Your workforce is also facing certain risks on a day to day basis. If you have an ongoing strategy to build a safe working environment for your employees, you will be happy to find out that IoT revolutionized this field as well.
IoT delivers better safety standards, especially in the area of human-machine interactions. We can see more and more workers wearing tech throughout a day that protects them from getting hurt. For instance, a wearable device can stop the machine before the injury occurs.
In facilities with robotics upgrades, wearable tech can signalize the automated machines to take appropriate action when a human employee is in proximity. A perfect example is facilities with additive manufacturing. Thanks to IoT, 3D printing jobs can be put on pause until the human agents are done with their tasks.
Proactive Maintenance Practices
So far, there were only two approaches to maintenance. You could do it on a schedule or replace the parts, devices, or machines when they stop working. Maintenance is another aspect of the industrial revolution facilitated by IoT. Thanks to the internet and smart devices, maintenance can become a proactive effort.
Facility managers can leverage smart devices to track all the performance indicators, including voltage, temperature, and vibration. Furthermore, intelligent software solutions can analyze and interpret this data to provide alerts, warnings, and updates, thus enabling proactive maintenance.
The Internet of Things plays more than one role in the industrial revolution. Its ability to turn every device and sensor into a smart device and provide the data to intelligent software solutions will continue to change the industry as we know it.